The spacecraft sent to examine Rama is called ‘Endeavour’ – named after Captain Cook’s exploratory sailing ship that reached Australasia and made for the first European contact with a previously-unknown area of the world. ‘Rama’ itself is named after the Hindu god that is considered the supreme being, and the humans have a reverence for the impressive unknown quantity they simultaneously admire and fear. The book is not sterile of spirituality, and such shading helps to give it a more rounded view of the human condition. Illustration © Matt Griffin from The Folio Society edition of Rendezvous with Rama This is especially impressive when the humans reach and explore Rama, finding an opening and descending along a ladder to the uncharted territory of the giant vessel’s innards. Clarke’s elegant descriptive prose is just about light-touch enough to never weary with excessive detail, yet nuanced enough to plant firm images in the reader’s head. On the other hand, if you’re looking for grand, powerful science-fiction tropes, Rendezvous with Rama is a rich and impressive work. If you prefer troubled, rounded characters who are psychologically intriguing, then Arthur C Clarke is not the right author for you. But the characters are subservient to examining these concepts. Clarke is forensic and thought-provoking in extrapolating into prose his themes of humankind’s cosmic insignificance, the limits of our knowledge and what it means to make first contact with a more advanced alien civilisation. The same mindset is needed to appreciate Rendezvous with Rama.

The difference was expectation, as well as an increasing intellectual maturity and appreciation of scientific ideas. I gave the film another chance when I was sixteen, and the second time around it blew my mind, and became a firm favourite. I had expected the excitement of Star Wars but was left bored rigid. I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time when I was twelve.

But why has it entered earth’s solar system? Who is on board? And does it mean any harm? It quickly becomes clear that ‘Rama’ is of alien origin, created by a highly technologically advanced civilisation. A space craft is dispatched to investigate the object and report back to earth. Following a meteor’s catastrophic collision with earth some years earlier (spookily, Clarke’s chosen date is September 11th), earth’s defences are primed to react immediately to any perceived threat. In Rendezvous with Rama, what appears to be an asteroid enters the solar system. Readers can find some of the themes that interested Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey examined further here. Clarke’s next project after 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Stanley Kubrick’s big screen adaptation brought to a much wider audience. Rendezvous with Rama first appeared in print in 1973.

Arthur clarke rendezvous with rama